Sept. 25, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University soccer team will face one of its toughest challenges of the 2010 campaign Sunday as the Bulldogs play host to the first-place UNC Greensboro Spartans in an early-season Southern Conference duel to be held at 2 p.m. (CDT) at Bulldog Field.

Samford (4-4-1, 0-1 SoCon) heads into the match looking to begin a new undefeated streak at home. The Bulldogs enter the contest with a two-match losing streak with recent setbacks against No. 25-ranked Auburn and Elon.

With a 1-0 loss to Elon on Friday, Samford suffered its first home defeat in over three years. The loss was Samford's first at home since a 3-0 setback against Auburn on Sept. 21, 2007. Friday's loss snapped Samford's 28-match home undefeated streak which was the fourth-longest in the nation. The Bulldogs compiled a 22-0-6 record at Bulldog Field during the stretch.

UNC Greensboro (6-1-1, 1-0 SoCon) enters Sunday's meeting having won three straight matches. The Spartans suffered their lone defeat of the season at Cal State Fullerton 2-0 on Sept. 5, and have since rattled off wins against Charlotte 2-1, Old Dominion 3-1 and Chattanooga 5-2.

On Friday, UNC Greensboro won a wild game at Chattanooga to open SoCon play. With the Spartans holding a 2-1 lead late in the second half, freshman Stine Schoening scored her first career goal to start a string of three Spartan goals in a span of just 4:34. Jessi Gulledge notched her second career goal just 4:06 after Schoening's strike, and Jenn Partenheimer made it a 5-1 game just 28 seconds after that.

Chattanooga got in on the scoring as well, getting a goal 1:30 later to make it a combined four goals in 6:04 of game time. Freshman Kristen Schmidbauer scored for the second straight game for UNC Greensboro's first goal, while Jaimey Etten also had a first-half score for the Spartans.

Samford owns a 1-0-1 all-time record against UNC Greensboro, making the Bulldogs the only SoCon team to have a winning record against the Spartans. UNC Greensboro and Samford played to a scoreless draw in Birmingham, Ala., in 2008, the Bulldogs' first season in the league. Samford then took a 2-1 win over the Spartans last season in Greensboro.

The last time these two squads met was Oct. 16, 2009, when Samford took the 2-1 win at UNCG Soccer Stadium, snapping the Spartans' 22-match unbeaten streak over SoCon opponents at home. Tabitha Padgett gave UNC Greensboro an early lead with an 11th-minute goal, knocking in the rebound of her own saved shot for her seventh goal of the season.

The Bulldogs answered in the 21st minute, with Leah Leppert converting passes from Amber Cress and Natalie Fleming to knot the score at 1-1. Cress scored just 42 seconds into the second half to make it a 2-1 game, and keeper Alyssa Whitehead did the rest, keeping UNC Greensboro off the board the rest of the way.

Sunday's contest will be a battle of the top two teams in the SoCon preseason poll. The Spartans were picked to win the league, earning nine first-place votes and 117 points. Samford was picked second, with two first-place votes and 107 total points.

Following Sunday's showdown against UNC Greensboro, the Samford soccer team will next be in action Friday at 6 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs begin a three-match road trip against the College of Charleston Cougars at Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

GameTracker - UNC Greensboro at Samford